- From the dulcimer, he took the leather-covered hammer
- From the clavichord, the action of the struck string
- from the harpsichord, a system of dampers attached to the jacks for the damping action
- His own invention, the "escapment" allowed the hammer to fall away from the strings after striking them.
His piano had a compass of 4 1/2 octaves. There were two strings to each note key and each key was also provided with an individual damper.
1740- Silbermann, a German piano builder, invented the prell mechanism which solved the problem of rapid repetition of the hammers.
1770- Stein perfected the Prell mechanism and added an escapment (with an "e" or not?) device. His new action was famous throughout Europe as the Viennese action.
1783- Broadwood of London invented the damper pedal action
1793- Broadwood invented the una corde pedal
1777-Erard brothers of France produced his first piano which brought them much fame. After moving to England, they worked for the Broadwood Company where they combined the rapid action of the German pianos with the powerful sonority of the English pianos.
1818- Erard brothers invented the "double escapement" key action. This action keeps the hammers consistently in touch with the key, allowing repetition of a note without waiting for the hammer to return to its bed. The unheard-of force exerted by Liszt and his pupils caused the instrument makers to screw both ends of the strings in to iron plates to ensure the tuning. Also, the strings were made of the toughest available material, cast steel.
Period from 1800 to 1830- when the piano had more changes than any other standard Western instrument, and its central role in the home was confirmed. The piano's range increased from 6 1/2 to 7 octaves and later to 7 1/3 octaves. Improvements were also made in stringing and tension bracing. By the 1830's, the piano closely resembled the modern piano.
Thus, the history of the piano after the perfection of the double escapemet action is largely concerned with the development of metal bracing that could withstand the ever-increasing tension imposed by the thicker strings required for increased loudness and brilliance.
The greatest single advance was the invention in 1825 of the one piece cast-iron frame by Babcock in Boston, USA, which also allowed for a more accurate tuning. Babcock was also the first to conceive of cross-stringing, an arrangement in which the strings of treble and middle register fan out over most of the soundboard while the bass strings cross over them, forming a separate fan at a higher level. More strings were therefore over the highly resonant central portion of the soundboard. These two features were in the grand piano exhibited in 15 by Steinway and Sons of New York.
Notes in the highest register could now be triple strung for a richer sound, while bass strings were improved by the use of wound steel. The modern piano frame supports a total pull of 20 tons!!! The length of the strings should double every octave and to compensate, the string diameter and weight are gradually increased so that all the strings will be at their proper pitches at the same tension. Loss of tone in the bass is therefore evident on a spinet versus a grand- the lowest bass string on a grand piano, unwound, is 22 feet long.
1874- Steinway developed and added the sostenuto (or middle) pedal to their pianos (it was first used in France in 1860). By 1860, the modern piano as we now have it today had evolved to 88 keys with a total range of 7 1/4 octaves. A nine foot grand's lowest note has a seven foot long string.
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